New England Farmer, 4: 418-419 (1852)

White Blackberry

This engraving is a good illustration of a spur from a stem of the White Blackberry bush, handed us by Mr. J. S. NEEDHAM, of Danvers, in this State, the original cultivator, we believe, of the plant. It is a luxuriant grower, running up vigorously from six to ten feet. Buds are set on the stem less than two inches from each other, and each bud puts out two spurs, averaging about fifty berries, while the common blackberry has but one spur to a bud, and produces a much smaller number of berries.

The fruit is large, amber-colored and very sweet and rich. The plant is hardy, we understand, and easy of propagation. The demand for it, so far, has been considerably greater than the supply.

It is to be hoped that not only this fruit, but that the huckleberry and blackberry will be domesticated and improved in size and flavor by careful cultivation. The common high blackberry is already cultivated in our gardens to a considerable extent. The wild berries are now selling in Boston for from ten to eighteen cents a quart, and the demand hardly supplied even at these prices. Mr. HOVEY, in his Magazine, states that the liberal premiums offered for the common blackberry "by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, have had the good effect of producing very general competition; and so superior have been some of the specimens—so much larger than when first exhibited, evidently showing what care and attention will do for this as well as other fruits—that the society has deemed it advisable to offer a high prize for a seedling, with the hope of still further improvement: for, although what few attempts have been made in this way have not been attended with very favorable results, there is still reason to believe that it will yield to the ameliorating influences of cultivation, as well as the strawberry, the gooseberry, or the raspberry."